Wi-Fi naming: What your iPhone finds out about your neighbors

One of the most useful things the iPhone does is find Wi-Fi networks in the area. This is something any device with Wi-Fi connectivity can do, but finding a Web connection with an iPhone in hand is a bit easier than driving around a neighborhood with a laptop in search of a strong signal.

This also happens to one of the most revealing and amusing features of the iPhone.

Sure, many network names are as mundane as "linksys," 2WIRE252" and "homenetwork." In San Francisco, you find a lot of service set identifiers such as "free network" or "t-mobile" something to that effect.

Yet this being San Francisco, there are other SSIDs that are more "adult" in nature. I've seen "Don Quixote" and, quite amusingly, "boyjuice," "manjuice" and "bearsden."

About the author

Kevin Ho is an attorney living in San Francisco. He's from Iowa
originally where he got his first Atari computer when he was little and
remembers using the Apple IIGS. He is PC-user but secretly a Mac person
in the closet as evidenced by many an iPod cluttering his desk drawers. He'll be writing about his experience with the iPhone.
Disclosure.
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